The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program product.
In recent years, devices having touch panels are widely available. When a user uses a device having a touch panel, the user can enjoy intuitive operation by touching a screen. Therefore, it is considered that the reason why such devices come into wide use is that the size of the display region can be increased with respect to the size of the device. Moreover, the resolution of the screen such as a liquid crystal display screen is increased so that the device displays as much information as possible in the limited display region.
However, the display region needs to have a certain size of area so as to allow a user to perform touch operation even when the resolution of the screen is increased. For this reason, when the size of the display region is increased, the high resolution screen may not be sufficiently utilized in view of the cost and the like. For the same reason, the device for which touch operation is necessary needs to have a certain physical size, and therefore, it is difficult to incorporate such device into a small mobile device.
In order to improve such situation, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-54854 suggests a technique for sorting options in proximity to a pen with which a position on a touch panel is specified. When this technique is used, the options move to a position where one of them can be selected with the pen. Therefore, even when the displayed options are concentrated in a small display region, one of the options can be selected.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-116583 suggests a technique for enlarging/displaying or focusing/displaying an option at a position closest to the position of the finger that is brought into proximity. When this technique is used, the focus can be switched by a slightly-changed coordinate specified with the finger.